Cate Blanchett takes limelight at Australia summit

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Hollywood star wattage outweighed
intellectual light at the opening of an Australian thinkers
summit on Saturday, with cameras firmly focused on
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and her newborn son.

Fellow actor and X-Men film franchise star Hugh Jackman
also stole the limelight from the other 998 of the nation's
best minds, promising to lobby for more Australian actors to
come home as his "big idea" for the future planning summit.

"It's a beginning, I believe really strongly, of a long and
meaningful relationship between artists and the government, not
as an adjunct to, but as a fundamental aspect of, society," a
beaming Blanchett said when collared by media.

Blanchett, who most recently appeared in "Elizabeth: The
Golden Age" and "I'm Not There," won the best supporting
actress Oscar in 2005 for her role as screen goddess Katharine
Hepburn in "The Aviator," about eccentric U.S. billionaire
Howard Hughes.

Blanchett happily posed for photos after entering the
so-called 2020 Summit of Australia's brightest minds in the
Great Hall of parliament in Canberra on Saturday, just six days
after giving birth to her third son, Ignatius Martin Upton.

Blanchett, one of two females among the 10 summit chairs,
sat in the front row next to her playwright husband Andrew
Upton, who was left holding the baby, who promptly fell asleep
after having a wrap removed by his mother.

Jackman said Blanchett was a "superwoman" and described her
as "flawless as a person" before heading into a creative
brainstorming session to be led by Blanchett.

He said he would push fellow brainstormers to come up with
a way of encouraging a more creative focus for all Australians.

"(By 2020 we should have) a really vibrant artistic
community that is leading the world, something that is one of
the main focuses of Australians, internationally, that we're
really proud of," he told Australian radio.